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Tale of the twelve dancing princesses
Those twelve sisters were locked in their bedroom each night, but each morning, their dance slippers were worn out. The king, their father, wanted to discover why. He said he'll give his daughters in marriage, to the princes who'll manage to know where they go each night, in three days. But they all failed, and were beheaded because of it. A soldier of mature age once came back from war, and met an old woman in the woods, who told him that, if he try his luck with the princesses, should not accept any drink from them. Also she give him an invisibility cloak. He arrived at the palace, and took his turn with princesses, in their locked room. The eldest brought him a cup of vine, but the soldier pretended to drink it, then faked to be asleep: the vine was drugged with soporifics. The princesses get dressed with ball dresses, and put on their new dancing slippers. Then, the eldest opened a secret passage in one of the wall. The soldier put on the invisibility cloak, and followed them. He walked on the skirt of the youngest princess, who was the last on line. She told her sisters she felt something, but they did not listen. The princesses crossed through a garden filled with gold and silver trees; the soldier took twigs from them. Then they arrived to a lake, where twelve princes waited with twelve boats. The princesses boarded and the soldier hide in the last of them. The princesses arrived in a ball room, and danced with princes all night long. The next evening, and the one after, all of this happened again, and the soldier took a precious cup in the ball room too. The third morning, the king asked the soldier where the princesses go each night, and he answered him, showing the twig and the cup as proofs. The princesses could not deny the truth. The soldier, as he was not a very young boy any more, choose the eldest princess as a wife. Variants -The princesses seems to have an humble goal by simply got to ball every night, but in the past, dancing was not an innocent past time, sometimes considered as a debauchery. -In some versions, there is only one princess, and she is joined by eleven others princesses she is not related to. Sometimes, they are only three, or six. -The soldier can also be either the cobbler's apprentice who made the shoes, or a prince with eleven brothers who marry each a sister at the end. -They are sometimes considered villainous as they do not bat an eyelid when the princes are executed. For that reason, in a TV adaptation, the soldier refuse to marry any of the princesses. -They are nice in more modern adaptations, where they are under a bad spell, and just want to escape the severe cousin who came for their education in the Barbie in the twelve dancing princesses. -In most adaptations, the princes who failed are not sentenced to death. -The soldier can be younger, and marry the youngest princess instead. Gallery anderson_dancingshoes1.jpg 440f1d00c0acd6fe36d448084cbe7143.jpg 12db3.jpg Category:Princesshood Category:Tales